Ex-Microsoft worker admits to leaking Windows 8 to blogger

Plea agreement calls for 3-month term in federal detention

BY LEVI PULKKINEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Published 5:30 pm, Monday, March 31, 2014

Workers removing the products from the stage after the Microsoft Windows 8 and Surface event in New York, Oct. 25, 2012. Microsoft threw a coming-out party on Thursday for their new operating system and tablet, its most significant new products in years. (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)
Photo: CHANG W. LEE, New York Times

Guests try out new Microsoft Windows 8 products during the company's Windows 8 and Surface event in New York, Oct. 25, 2012. Microsoft threw a coming-out party on Thursday for their new operating system and tablet, its most significant new products in years. (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)
Photo: CHANG W. LEE, New York Times

Guests try out new Microsoft Windows 8 products during the...

Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, on the stage during the company's Windows 8 and Surface event in New York, Oct. 25, 2012. Microsoft threw a coming-out party on Thursday for their new operating system and tablet, its most significant new products in years. (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)
Photo: CHANG W. LEE, New York Times

Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, on the stage during...

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 25: People look at the Microsoft Windows 8 operating system at a press conference launch of the system on October 25, 2012 in New York City. Windows 8 will offer a touch interface in an effort to bridge the gap between tablets, smartphones and personal computers. Microsoft will also be selling a tablet called Surface to compete in the competitive tablet market. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Photo: Mario Tama, Getty Images

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 25: People look at the Microsoft Windows 8...

Workers removing the products from the stage after the Microsoft Windows 8 and Surface event in New York, Oct. 25, 2012. Microsoft threw a coming-out party on Thursday for their new operating system and tablet, its most significant new products in years. (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)
Photo: CHANG W. LEE, New York Times

Workers removing the products from the stage after the Microsoft...

Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., looks at the new Surface tablet during an interview in New York, U.S., on Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012. Ballmer is introducing the biggest overhaul of his company's flagship software in almost two decades with the launch of Windows 8 at an event in New York today. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Steve Ballmer
Photo: Scott Eells, Bloomberg

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 25: People look at the Microsoft Windows 8 operating system at a press conference launch of the system on October 25, 2012 in New York City. Windows 8 will offer a touch interface in an effort to bridge the gap between tablets, smartphones and personal computers. Microsoft will also be selling a tablet called Surface to compete in the competitive tablet market. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Photo: Mario Tama, Getty Images

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 25: People look at the Microsoft Windows 8...

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 25: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer speaks at a press conference unveiling the Windows 8 operating system on October 25, 2012 in New York City. Windows 8 will offer a touch interface in an effort to bridge the gap between tablets, smartphones and personal computers. Microsoft will also be selling a tablet called Surface to compete in the competitive tablet market. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Photo: Mario Tama, Getty Images

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 25: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer speaks at a...

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 25: Tiffany Wilson adjusts her gloves in the morning cool after arriving at 8:30am Thursday morning to wait in line for the opening of the Times Square Microsoft store on October 25, 2012 in New York City. The official store opening was scheduled for Thursday night ahead of Friday's release of the long-awaited Microsoft Surface tablets and the Windows 8 operating system. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
Photo: John Moore, Getty Images

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 25: Tiffany Wilson adjusts her gloves in the...

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 25: A queue awaits customers Thursday morning ahead of the opening of the Times Square Microsoft store on October 25, 2012 in New York City. The official store opening was scheduled for Thursday night ahead of Friday's release of the long-awaited Microsoft Surface tablets and the Windows 8 operating system. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
Photo: John Moore, Getty Images

A former Microsoft Corp. worker accused of leaking Windows 8 to a blogger pleaded guilty Monday to a federal charge that will likely see him serve three months in federal detention.

Entering the plea in U.S. District Court at Seattle, former Microsoft software architect Alex Kibkalo admitted to sending unreleased software code to a French technology blogger.

Kibkalo, 34, pleaded guilty to theft of trade secrets and is scheduled to be sentenced in July. Kibkalo also agreed to repay Microsoft $22,500, though it’s unclear how he came to owe the Redmond corporation the money.

Having spent seven years with Microsoft, Kibkalo leaked Windows 8 code to the blogger in mid-2012, prior to the software’s release.

Microsoft brought its concerns to the FBI in July, nearly a year after corporate investigators suspected Kibkalo had leaked parts of Windows 8. In the plea agreement signed Monday, Kibkalo admitted to passing the blogger code for Windows 8 as well as a software development kit used by Microsoft to protect against counterfeiting.

Microsoft came to believe Kibkalo sent the software development kit to the French blogger and encouraged the blogger to share it online so others could crack protections on Microsoft products, an FBI agent said in charging papers.

Corporate investigators confronted Kibkalo in September 2012 during an interview in which he’s alleged to have admitted to sharing the software. Kibkalo admitted to sharing unreleased Windows programs as well as company memos and documents; Microsoft investigators claim he was angry after a poor performance review.

Releasing a statement Friday, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith said the company has changed its investigation policy and will no longer raid users’ inboxes and Instant Messenger accounts in search of intellectual property thieves.

“Effective immediately, if we receive information indicating that someone is using our services to traffic in stolen intellectual or physical property from Microsoft, we will not inspect a customer’s private content ourselves,” Smith said in the lengthy statement, available here. “Instead, we will refer the matter to law enforcement if further action is required.”

Smith went on to say Microsoft, and society at large, have entered a “post-Snowden era” while defending the tactics Microsoft now claims to have abandoned.

“While our own search was clearly within our legal rights, it seems apparent that we should apply a similar principle and rely on formal legal processes for our own investigations involving people who we suspect are stealing from us,” Smith continued. “Therefore, rather than inspect the private content of customers ourselves in these instances, we should turn to law enforcement and their legal procedures.”

While searching the blogger’s Hotmail account, Microsoft investigators found an email from Kibkalo in which he shared Windows 8 “hot fixes” through an online hosting system. Windows 8 had not been released to the public at the time, and was the subject of much speculation in the industry.

Prosecutors and Kibkalo have agreed to recommend a three-month sentence to federal detention. A felony conviction will prevent Kibkalo from being in the United States legally.

Currently in custody, Kibkalo is scheduled to be sentenced July 1 by U.S. District Judge John Coughenour at the federal courthouse in Seattle.